


how to kill a shadow

by autisticlalna (mathonwys)



Series: casting a shadow (Shadow People AU) [2]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Accidental Trauma, Angst, Doc legit doesn't know the consequences of his actions, Gen, Hurt/Comfort but I forgot to write the comfort, Living Shadows, Questionable ethics, Shadow People AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-26 23:13:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21108746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mathonwys/pseuds/autisticlalna
Summary: "Whenever a new resource is introduced, without fail the hermits would find a way to farm it."After Ren's discovery of the shadow mob, all of the hermits get curious... and some of them start to wonder the practical applications. Doc isn't one to be outdone, and gets to work finding the shadows' limits, weaknesses, and the best way to farm them.it's all fun and games until someone gets traumatized!(written for the Shadow People AU by mine-sara-sp on tumblr!)





	how to kill a shadow

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on my mineblr, autisticlalna!
> 
> this was actually going to be my first shadow people au fic but i wrote a lot of setup and that evolved into shadow play whOOPS so now its a series
> 
> this is inspired entirely by an ask mine-sara-sp got about how shadows could be killed by redstone contraptions and how doc would react when discovering shadows can become sapient, which ill include at the end
> 
> as a side note i really want to write and/or draw cute fluff with doc's shadow but i wrote this instead. hence the "hurt/comfort but i forgot to write the comfort"

Whenever a new resource is introduced, without fail the hermits would find a way to farm it.

The more redstone-inclined hermits were already designing drafts and blueprints on how to deal with the shadows. They were aggressive, and adapted quickly to their summoner’s fighting style; they were stronger each time they were re-summoned, and some of them could be more bloodthirsty than others from the get-go. Others would flee, and had to be hunted down or summoned in an enclosed space lest they get away. Enlisting hermits to farm other people’s shadows was quickly discovered to be out of the question-- it didn’t matter how much you paid Iskall, he still couldn’t leave a scratch on any shadow that wasn’t his own. A setup like the other mob farms wouldn’t work.

The next path taken was full automation. The initial assumption had been that they could be harmed by other mobs as well; Tango had put together something along the lines of his drowned-powered iron farm, but his shadow had shrugged off everything until he got fed up and killed it himself. After that, it became a sort of friendly contest: see who could finally create a redstone contraption capable of killing a shadow hands-free. The winner didn’t win anything besides the sheer amount of loot that could be gained from the shadows’ ability to duplicate the inventories of their summoners, but that was reward enough.

Cub had summoned a shadow to use for testing in one of his own contraptions. He didn’t talk about it. He didn’t do it again.

Doc threw himself into it full-force. It reminded him a bit of the “how to kill a Tango” contest, but instead of killing Tango he was building deathtraps for… well, himself. In a sense. The shadow wasn’t him. The only similarities they had was physical shape. The blank yellow eyes that looked at him after he summoned it betrayed nothing about its personality or behaviour; for the purpose of testing, he’d unequipped all his weapons and armor, so the most it could do was swipe at him mindlessly from its prison as he wandered about and set everything into place.

Time to begin the tests.

He learned several things from his experiments. Minus being invulnerable to mobs and hunger, they took damage just the same as a player. They could drown, they could be crushed, they could be burnt (although that wasn’t as much of an option because of the risk of losing the items carried), they could be exploded, they could get withered, they could be stabbed or shot or axed. They had the same health as a player, although despite their attention to detail when it came to inventory status they would still spawn at full health if their summoner wasn’t. If someone besides the summoner hit the switch to set the contraption in motion, they’d be invincible just as if they’d been attacked in a more conventional manner.

Doc found a routine that worked. Summon the shadow, drop it down into the depths of the contraption, hit the lever, let the redstone do its work, and collect the payout from the chests. It wouldn’t be long before he was one of the richest hermits on the server, if not _ the _ richest. Of course, with how it was set up, it would be easy for another hermit to do the summoning instead… which they could, for a steep price. Was it cheating? Not really, Doc figured. The shadows were an intended mechanic, and he was willing to abuse it for all it was worth.

Time for the maiden voyage. As it had every time he’d summoned it before, his light-cast shadow warped and twisted before the shadow mob formed out of it; exactly as designed, the shadow triggered a tripwire as soon as it was fully formed and had no time to react before the piston underneath it retracted and dropped it down out of sight. The block slid back into place, leaving no way to escape. With the first steps done, Doc casually flicked the lever.

Nothing.

He scowled and flicked it again. Had he not reset it properly? No, it was supposed to reset automatically… He’d only just built the outer casing hiding the redstone, maybe he’d accidentally broken a circuit? Doc facepalmed hard and dug down so he could worm his way down into the heart of the contraption.

There’s the problem. He hadn’t taken into account how the redstone would interact with that block placed there. Doc chided himself for his mistake and fixed the error, then turned to pillar his way back out and give it another shot.

There was a strange noise coming from behind him. Doc stopped. It was coming from the chamber the shadow was being held in, awaiting a swift death. He’d... never heard a shadow make a sound before. His first thought was that maybe another mob had gotten in, but that wasn’t possible-- there was no spawnable space in the trap itself, and the only thing that had been in it so far was his shadow. It didn’t sound like a zombie’s groans or a skeleton’s rattling, either.

It… sounded like _ crying _.

Doc leaned against the wall of the death chamber and pressed his ear to it to hear better. That was definitely crying. It sounded like _ him _ crying. What? Several emotions swirled around in him-- confusion, worry, dismay, all bundled up into something he wasn’t sure how to manage. That _ had _ to be the shadow, there was no other option. Doc weighed his choices. He couldn’t just set off the trap now without finding out what was going on. He _ did _have a heart, after all, despite how he could come off as callous or abrasive.

He was starting to regret making the outer wall out of obsidian when his pick finally broke through. There, visible through the hole, was his shadow. A perfect copy of him, save for being solid black with gold eyes and detailing. Doc wasn’t sure what he expected to see. The sight that would have made sense when compared to how every other mob acted would’ve been for the shadow to be standing there, angry, maybe aiming its copy of his trident if he’d had it equipped during the summoning. That wasn’t the sight awaiting him.

Doc’s shadow was balled up on the floor, resting uncomfortably on the hopper waiting to collect its drops, and bawling. Its arms were over its head in a vague attempt to defend itself from what was coming, and it didn’t even seem to realize Doc was there. He stared, jaw hanging open, as he struggled to comprehend what was happening. This wasn’t a mob behaving like a mob. This was a mob behaving like a_ player_.

His shadow was choking out words between sobs. They weren’t directed at him. It was more like a mantra, or desperate begging to the powers that be, or anything that could be listening: “**please, I don’t want to die**”. It repeated it over and over, mixed in with other pathetic pleas for something, anything, to stop the torture. Doc’s chest tightened and he balled his hands into fists hard enough to hurt. What was he _ doing_? More pressingly, what had he _ done_?

The sound of Doc chipping away at the rest of the obsidian broke through to his shadow. It flinched away and tried to find anywhere it could hide; Doc could see the fear in its eyes, clear as day, as it pressed itself up against one of the walls. He did his best to focus on his work. Seeing himself-- his shadow-- like this was heartbreaking in a way he didn’t realize was possible.

It wasn’t that long until he’d made a gap large enough for the shadow to escape through. It refused to budge, staring at him, distrusting. Doc put away his pickaxe and held his hands up as he backed away. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said carefully. “I’m letting you out. Come on. Let’s go.” It shook its head and mouthed ‘no’. Doc sighed. “It’s safe now. I’m not going to kill you. Let’s go.”

His shadow still refused to move. Doc braced himself for an attack and took a step forward; if it wasn’t going to move on its own, he’d have to carry it out. He’d figure out what to do later, he just couldn’t stand the idea of his shadow being in here anymore.

As soon as he approached, it _ screamed_. The sound was high-pitched and panicked, so unlike Doc’s usual furious roar that it knocked him back with shock. It was a sound he’d never heard himself make, and he hoped he never would. “**G- Get away from me--! Don’t hurt me!**” The shadow didn’t lash out, though, and instead scrunched up tighter as if that would make him go away.

This wasn’t going to work. Doc hesitated, then backed up. “I’m…” He had no idea what to say. His shadow was traumatized at the very sight of him. Not only that, but it was talking, reacting, afraid of pain-- it was alive. No, not only that, it was _ aware_. He felt sick. He tried to imagine what it must be like, tried to imagine what if he’d been in the shadow’s place, and the nausea got worse; barely able to maintain his composure, Doc turned his back on it. “I’m… I’m going to go get help.” His voice cracked.

His shadow didn’t react as he equipped his elytra and shot up into the air, out of the hole, as far away from the deathtrap as possible.

**Author's Note:**

> galaxyna:  
So~ what if the reason Doc experimented on his shadow and killed it multiple times to the point it got scarred was because he was one of the first to start playing around with the new mob and would just go from trap to trap testing without giving the poor shadow time to show signs of sentientness This cycle of summon-trap-death-repeat only stopping when the machine actually didn’t work and he has to re check the blueprints of the machine leaving the shadow in the trap for someone to find/rescue 
> 
> mine-sara-sp:  
Doc freezed when he went to start the trap again and heard the first words coming from his shadow.
> 
> A sobbing “Please, I don’t want to die”.
> 
> That’s how everyone discovered what would happen after killing your shadow too many times.


End file.
